Help Glen and Stacy Battle ALS aka Lou Gehrig's

Very few humans know what it is to watch your spouse of 20 plus years, your first love and only love since high school, soul mate and best friend slowly die. You listened to your foster mom when she told you to marry your best friend because looks will fade but being able to talk about everything till death do you part is far more valuable to create a stable unbreakable bond of a marriage.

Mom didnt know about ALS when she gave me that great advise. She didn't know the person i share everything with for 26 years would stop talking from a horrid terminal illness. 

We find ourselves facing one of lives most difficult challenges. Knowing that your soul mate and best friend has a terminal disease and the average life expectancy is 2-5 years. 

My husband was told on April 14th 2022 that he had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis aka as ALS aka Lou Gehrig's Disease. Think Ice Bucket challenge when it was popular back in 2014.  

Glen, my husband, was diagnosed with bulbar ALS. About 30% of people who are diagnosed with ALS first notice issues with swallowing or speech. He started about Oct/Nov 2021 saying that when he took his daily medications it was hard to take them all at once like normal and it felt like there was a bubble in this throat.  

Not long after he has some slurred speech that one friend described as marbles in his mouth and a call with one of his doctors during covid telehealth medicine thought he might be drinking. And if you know Glen you know that would have been hysterical because a drink to glen is a half glass of wine for an anniversary or a beer with some hot wings. 

I am now a caregiver at 43 years old. When I started dating Glen we worried that the 23 years between us would be an issue. And since 1996 nothing has stopped us. I would even sneak into a casino before I turned 21 to play poker to be with him and by him. I considered that maybe in my early to mid 60s I would take on more of a caregiver role. But that is still 20 years down the road.

He got his feeding tube on February 8, 2023. He had 2 trips to 2 different emergency rooms following and this morning he surprised us both by PASSING a 9mm kidney stone. He has medullary sponge kidney disease and it has had him create and pass some 200 kidney stones in his 67 years along with a dozen or so surgeries when he couldn't do it himself.

We found ourselves using credit cards for health insurance for him and prescriptions, then to help pay the bills to get us through each month.

I created a Facebook group page called Lou Gehrig's Minor League Starring Glen Peterson to help give us emotional support. But after trying to sell of some items we find ourselves stressed and depressed and in need of asking for financial help. If you know Glen, you know we were the ones picking up the bill for dinners for friends and going out of our ways to help others in need. And finding the tables have turned is a hard pill to swallow. (no pun for his ALS intended).  

We are asking if you are able to donate, please, we really need additional medication items, a bathroom remodel for him and soon a ramp. We are trying to get grants to help with the items we can but it is still not enough.  

If you find yourself able to join our Facebook group to help with emotional support - boy is that ever needed on his side of this terminal disease and on my side as caregiver. Please join Lou Gehrig's Minor League Starring Glen Peterson

And above all, we ask you to share our GoFundMe. Help us get the word out. Help us make what short time we have together in life less stressful. Sharing is caring - please do us that favor.

We will be posting updates on our GoFundMe but we share our daily struggles and stories on our Facebook page Lou Gehrig's Minor League Starring Glen Peterson more often and invite you to learn more about this incredible cruel disease so that we can help find a cure. Oh yes, did i forget to mention - this terminal disease that happens to some 5500 Americans yearly has NO CURE. So if you find yourself able to educate others, even if just by our story or group, please - the more the help fight with us, the more funding it will get and more scientists will work on it to find a cure.

Glen and I participate in what research studies and trials we are approved for at Penn State Health Hershey. Knowing he is doing some things that make his anxiety skyrocket but he does it with what little time he has left because he wants to help the next person - which might be you or your loved one.

Thankfully his is not hereditary - if there is a silver lining I guess we have that to hold.

Glen and I want to THANK YOU for everyone who has read it this far and who has been there in our journey. We see you and we are eternally grateful. We wish you love beyond all words and know that I will need you more than ever once this has taken away my partner. Please help it so this shit only takes one soul, not mine too.

P.S. as you know this site takes a percentage of what is donated. So if you would like to send funds via venmo (@Stacy-Peterson-79), facebook or paypal. It would ensure your full donation would get to us

.